Neg's guide to Optimal Chain Healing. @ 24.01.2008 - 21:55 | Nihilum.eu

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Neg's guide to Optimal Chain Healing.

by neg @ 24 Jan 2008, 09:55 PM

This is a PvE focused Resto (healing) shaman guide, both because I am a PvE focused player and because shamans are horrible in PvP. The only tips I could think of for PvP is reroll Resto drood (would be a short PvP guide) for small brackets or go Elemental and hope for a good 5vs5.

Resto shamans are generally considered to be the weakest healing class in game, this mainly has two reasons. First and foremost, in Vanilla-WoW resto shamans were the weakest healers around. Poor itemization, spirit based mana regeneration and low +Healing made resto shamans without a doubt the worst healers around and people remember this, thus labeling resto shamans weak. The second reason for the bad reputation is the fact that quite a lot of resto shamans out there aren’t resto by free will, but forced into healing by their guild or friends, this obviously doesn’t lead to good, dedicated healers.

But don’t be fooled by all this prejudice. Resto shamans are more than competent in TBC and once a resto shaman gets the needed gear, he’ll be a healer that is superior to all other healing classes. All you have to do is get the needed gear.

If you want to be successful as resto shaman in raids, the first thing you have to fix is the group setup. Shamans buff group wise, so make sure you get a spot in a DPS group, either with casters for Wrath of Air/Mana Spring/Mana Tide or in a melee group for Windfury /Strength of Earth. For the shaman a group with a shadow priest is preferable, the mana efficiency of shamans is quite poor so the added mana regeneration from the SP helps very, very much and can even be considered a must for some fights.

Also make sure that you are assigned to the right target. Shamans healing a tank while pallies raid heal is not a good way to go in general. The other way around where pallies spam the tank and shamans take care of the splash damage on the raid with Chain Heal is more efficient. If your raid leader keeps on refusing to assign the resto shamans to raid healing, replace him.

Gear is very important for resto shamans. Now you would say: “Gear is important for every raider?” Well yes, but for shamans it’s crucial. Shamans are mediocre healers by nature, we lack mana efficiency and diversity in healing spells. A holy paladin with crappy gear is a decent healer, a shaman with crappy gear is absolutely horrible. But on the other side we do scale better than any other healing class in the game. A holy paladin with good gear is an excellent healer, but a shaman with good gear is just insane, both in HPS (health points per second) as in HPM (health points per mana).

Which stats to focus on depends on where you are in the game, so I’ll split this section into three categories: pre-raid, T4/T5 and T6.

Pre-raid.

With this I mean new resto shamans who just hit 70. Gear comes from 5-mans, quests and PvP. Biggest problem at this point will be the mana efficiency, in other word, you’ll run out of mana way too fast and people die because you aren’t able to heal them anymore. Your focus at this point should be:

Mp5. Mana per 5 is king at this stage; any increase in your mana regeneration makes you a stronger healer.
Int. Fights don’t last that long yet, and it isn’t till 3.5 minutes that Mp5 is outperforming Int in efficiency, so getting more Int is good at this moment.
+Healing. +Healing is a strong stat, but at this point the ability to keep on healing (with more mana) is more important then the impact of your heals. This doesn’t mean you should avoid +Healing, absolutely not, just don’t focus on it yet.
Stamina. The ability to stay alive is of course very important, but a luxury at this moment. Being able to keep on healing is all that matters.
Spirit. Absolutely worthless. Doesn’t mean you should never use an item with spirit, if it’s an upgrade then of course use it, but if you are using an item with spirit there is an item out there which is better, you just need to go get it.
Spell Crit. Same story as spirit, not a stat you want.
Spell Haste. Doubt you’ll get items with that at this point.

T4/T5

You’re now starting to get some gear, full epic even. Your mana pool should be able to last way longer, mana can still be a problem of course, but you can manage most of the time. With a shadow priest in your group you are able to cast Healing Wave or Chain Heals 75-85% of the time, not full time spammage yet, but close.

Mp5. Mana per 5 is still your most important stat, not as crucial anymore as before, but still king.
+Healing. The amount of damage people are taking is going up fast, so your heals need to have more impact. You’ll also be asked to raid heal with Chain Heal while the raid takes substantial damage, CH scales insanely good (125% of +Healing), so getting more + healing is starting to pay off.
Stamina. Splash damage is getting more and more significant, so having more HP is becoming necessary.
Spell crit is a bonus, don’t look for it, but if an item has it, not bad for Ancestral Healing.
Int. Int lost its value now, fights last too long to make Int worth the item points. Your mana pool should be more than big enough with the Int you get from your epic gear.
Spirit is absolutely a no-no, there are better items for you.
Spell haste is a no-no also, items with spell haste only tell you that there are better items for that slot out there.

T6.

You are starting to feel better now, you can't remember the last time you ran oom anymore or when a paladin out healed you in a serious encounter. You are necessary for the raid, a raid without you will have troubles with quite a few encounters.

+Healing is the absolute king now. Mana problems are something of the past and you can spam your heals as much as you want. It’s all about the impact of your heals, so the more +Healing you have, the better.
Mp5. Mana regeneration is a must, but it is limited. Once you reach around 550mp5 (gear, buffs, pots, SP, MT) you won't really need anymore as you can't spend it. Ending a fight with 90% mana won't make you a better healer than ending it with 10% mana.
Stamina. Stamina could be #2, staying alive is everything and you’ll be taking a lot of splash damage in raids.
Spell crit. You’ll hardly see it, the itemization is too good, but don’t be afraid of it.
Spell haste. Still a luxury and more something you want to collect for if Blizzard ever makes an encounter that requires spell haste.
Int. Your mana pool is nothing more than an unknown number, mana regen is the name of the game.
Spirit. Having spirit on items should endanger your raid spot.

I always use a little formula (roughly based on StatMods for items) to see which item is best for me.

Stamina = 1 point per 1 Stam

Intellect = 1 point per 1 Int

+Healing = 1 point per 1+Healing.

Mp5 = 5 points per 1mp5

All other stats have 0 value.

Now you simply add up all the points an item gets and the higher the score, the better an item is. A small example:

Cosmic Lifeband has a total of 92 points, 57 (for 57 +Healing) + 35 (for 7mp5) = 92 points.

Ring of Fabled Hope has a total of 71 points, 12 (for 12 Int) + 0 (for 11 spirit) + 59 (for 59 =Healing) = 71 points.

Both items have the same ItemValue according to Blizzard, 115, but for you as resto shaman the Cosmic Lifeband is clearly a better choice than the Ring of Fabled Hope.

Your spec shouldn’t stay the same throughout these stages. Early on you need more mana related talents, later on you can take more survival based talents.

Pre-raid Spec 0/5/56 Standard resto shaman spec, focus is your mana.

T4/T5 Spec 8/0/53 Raiding resto spec, because of the large amount of splash damage involved in modern raiding, Elemental Warding should be used.

T6 Spec 8/0/53 The raiding spec for the shaman with uber gear. You can afford to use the fast but mana inefficient LHW all the time, so no more need for Improved HW and Healing Way.

As professions for a raiding resto shaman I would recommend Alchemy and Enchanting.

- Alchemy: You take alchemy for two reasons. First and foremost it gives you access to the mighty Alchemist's Stone, the best healing trinket you can get until you kill Illidan. The second reason is that while it is a very lousy profession, you do need a few alchemists in the guild to make your pots and elixirs, and as a healer you actually benefit a bit from being alchemist.

- Enchanting: There aren’t many professions that really have an impact on your stats, but enchanting does. +20 Healing per ring is just nice, nothing major, but more than what most other professions have to offer.

As resto shaman you can use a standard healing UI of course. I would recommend:

- FuBar based. Easy to manage all the other addons.
- Pitbull user interface. Flexible and easy to adjust.
- Bartender 3. Bar management.
- Grid. By far the most important addon, raid overview where you can see the damage taken, debuffs and aggro all at once.
- One Bagg/Bank.
- Buffalo. For organising your buffs, weapon buffs and debuffs.
- ESTracker. Add on that shows who has your ES and how many charges are left on it.
- Totemtimers.

Macro wise I would recommend (all healers) to use macros that enable you to hover-heal (same effect as using Clique, but better keybindings are possible with macros). Especially as raid healer you have to switch target a lot and fast, not having to actually select your next target is a big advantage. The macro can be adjusted for LHW, CH and Cleanse Poison/Disease.

#showtooltip Lesser Healing Wave(Rank 7)

/cast [target=mouseover] Lesser Healing Wave; [harm] Purge(Rank 2)

NS macros for both healing your mouse over target and healing yourself. Both of course have a stopcasting command in it to make sure you can instantly NS-heal, even if you were casting an other heal.

/stopcasting

/cast Nature's Swiftness

/stopcasting

#showtooltip Healing Wave(Rank 12)

/cast [target=mouseover] Healing Wave(Rank 12)

/stopcasting

/cast Nature's Swiftness

/stopcasting

/cast [target=player] Healing Wave(Rank 12)

The consumables for resto shamans are quite standard. (Sorry that the links are white, it's a WoWHead thing)

Weapon oil: [Brilliant Mana Oil] (not the cheap new one)
Food: [Blackened Sporefish]
Elixirs: Either [Flask of Mighty Restoration]or [Elixir of Major Mageblood]+[Elixir of Healing Power]

Enchantments of course focus on mp5 and +healing, small differences as the Aldor or Scryer shoulder enchants aren't a problem.

Head: [Glyph of Renewal]
Shoulder: [Greater Inscription of Faith]
Chest: [Enchant Chest - Restore Mana Prime]
Wrist: [Enchant Bracer - Restore Mana Prime] / [Enchant Bracer - Superior Healing]
Gloves: [Enchant Gloves - Major Healing]
Legs: [Golden Spellthread]
Boots: [Enchant Boots - Vitality]
Shield: [Enchant Shield - Major Stamina]
Weapon: [Enchant Weapon - Major Healing] (if you're usually in melee groups).

[Enchant Weapon - Spellsurge] (for caster groups, 8mp5 per mana user in your group)

Gems are quite easy as resto shaman. As long as you’re using blue gems, Royal Nightseye is by far the best gem to use, only use Luminous Noble Topaz if the socket bonus is too good to miss. Once you start using epic gems I would go for Teardrop Crimson Spinel in red sockets and Royal Shadowsong Amethyst in blue slots, for yellow slots use Teardrop Crimson Spinel also, unless the socket bonus is too good again, then go for Luminous Pyrestone.

Which gear to use isn’t to hard in general. It's the jewellery/weapons where you see a lot of shamans making errors. I'll split it up again in pre-raid, T4/T5 and T6 again.

Pre-raid.

Necklace: Vindicator's Pendant of Salvation
Ring1: Vindicator's Band of Salvation
Ring2: Ancestral Band
Trinket1: Lower City Prayerbook
Trinket2: Alchemist's Stone
Weapon: Hand of Eternity / Gavel of Pure Light
Offhand: Crystal Pulse Shield

A lot of people use Scarab of the Infinite Cycle here, but you shouldn't. The -30% casting speed seems nice, but it hardly helps, only increases you HPS on random moments, add the internal cooldown of 45 (probably) seconds and you got a trinket that is not worth using.

T4/T5

Necklace: Emberspur Talisman
Ring1: Jade Ring of the Everliving
Ring2: Naaru Lightwarden's Band
Trinket1: Fathom-Brooch of the Tidewalker
Trinket2: Alchemist's Stone
Weapon: Vengeful Gladiator's Salvation
Offhand: Enamelled Disc of Mojo

Necklace: Lord Sanguinar's Claim
Rings: Band of the Eternal Restorer
Ring2: Blessed Band of Karabor
Trinket1: Memento of Tyrande
Trinket2: Fathom-Brooch of the Tidewalker / Alchemist's Stone
Weapon: Lightfathom Scepter / Crystal Spire of Karabor
Offhand: Enamelled Disc of Mojo / Touch of Inspiration

Comments

2 Page(s) [ 1 2 ]

Baloth
1 Feb 2008, 06:22 PM
User

Thanks a lot Neg, nice guide.

Kabo
1 Feb 2008, 06:43 PM
User

really nice :>

Betaman
1 Feb 2008, 07:03 PM
User

Thank you, really nice.

Few comments.

I recommend shamans not to use offhands, always shields, unless you are totally lacking good one and offhand is only choice. One good choice is Bastion of Light with +22heal gem, best survibility and +heal.

Healers not usually pull aggro midfight or not even boss aggro resets if they know what to do, but in trash packs when sheep breaks down etc. Then main target most cases will be healer and I personally prefer mobs come to me, shaman with shield, than they run to priest who is typically raid second aoe healer with CoH and dies. I can count hundreds of times when I have taken hit and prolly saved someone and havent died myself. For same reason I skip threat talents.

About downranking, I wont recommend to do it with LHW. HW7, 8 & 12 are most used, depending your +heal and then CH1, 4 & 5. Most cases downrank only if you need to save mana and know you will lack of it at the end. CH max rank is really good cause jumps will also heal more and ofthen those are not overheals.

Skipping HW talents to have improved casting and healing way I wouldnt personally do.

Finally always be casting, precast, precast, heal fast use also LHW what ever others say about how bad heal it is, we still are there to keep others alive no matter what. Piece.

Zanoan
2 Feb 2008, 02:51 AM
Casual Nihilum

Neg for class leader. Bye Ghorok.

Vysogota
2 Feb 2008, 03:31 AM
User

I'd say that Bastion of Light is equal to Enameled Disc of Mojo. One is focused on +healing, the other offers some balance between +healing and mp5, but both are great.

Dreadmure
2 Feb 2008, 02:52 PM
User

I'd like to see Elem & Enhance guides ^^

Landolph
2 Feb 2008, 06:54 PM
Nihilum Member

How could you expect a guide for classes/specs we do not use in raids? ;>

Bananen
2 Feb 2008, 08:06 PM
User

Well the items are good cowered, but lacking playstyle and tips how to heal good, especially the smaller details aswell.
And I disagree with specc. But now that I have internet browser acces, I'll write or add a resto shaman guide explaining the things lacking here.

Hopesfall
2 Feb 2008, 11:24 PM
User

When you talk a little about gear you recommend Vengeful Gladiator's Salvation for healing weapon but as a very poorly skilled pvper i have a serious problem getting it, any idea for a replacement? Thinking of just going with Gladiator's Salvation instead.

#10

Tomken
3 Feb 2008, 05:26 AM
User

Awake go pala guide!

#11

galdon
3 Feb 2008, 12:06 PM
User

Really nice guide Neq.
But I want to know how I should bind my totems, keybindings.

#12

Ghorok
3 Feb 2008, 03:05 PM
Class Leader

Hmm as Bananen said actually, some things I strongly disagree on.
Shamans can extremely viable as resto in pvp if played right. They are far from crap or useless. The specc is not optimal. Well written anyways and there's some good info as well.

#13

Buzzkill
3 Feb 2008, 03:36 PM
Law & Order

Awesome guide Neg, you are the best.

#14

Marilyn
3 Feb 2008, 03:47 PM
Just It

Excellent guide.. druid vs resto shaman pvp.. no discussion there.. you are completly right.. NEG FOR CLASSLEADER

#15

Grandeath
3 Feb 2008, 08:47 PM
Nihilum Member

Very nice guide. Ofc it doesnt contain everything, but no guide is supposed to either, so GJ Neg. Very interesting.

#16

frubus
4 Feb 2008, 09:53 AM
User

Nice guide.

However I would like to know how much mp5 (unbuffed) i should aim for in preraid and T4/T5.

#17

cloze
4 Feb 2008, 01:03 PM
Nihilum Class Leader

About time we got a guide out there!

Been way overdue, since Ghorok has turned WoW-Superstar and Bananeen is Fighting Civil Wars in the Croatian Jungle ;<

#18

neg
5 Feb 2008, 05:54 PM
what what in the

Betaman from BR ? o_0

Spec, ah, it are small diferences, but atm with the gear and requirements from shamans I dont see any problem in skipping the HW talents, we either CH or LHW. The talent points can then be better used for improved survivability.

And resto shamans good/viable in pvp ? on a 1700 rating level maybe, but by far the weakest pvp healing class around atm, lets hope for 2.4 >

#19

Lungan
5 Feb 2008, 06:16 PM
User

Shamans isnt the weakest pvp healing class around if the person is skilled, a skilled pvp-experienced resto shaman with the right gear is in my opinion extreamly good for all arena brackets

#20

Karnee
5 Feb 2008, 11:28 PM
Nihilum Member

Shamans isnt that bad in pvp

You should pvp more neg, you got all the gear for both enhancement and elemental!

2 Page(s) [ 1 2 ]